Nukenin
by I'mNoOneSpecial
Summary: It has been less than half a year since Jiraiya left with Naruto to train him. But something happened. Tsunade receives a letter informing her that Jiraiya was mortally wounded fighting a black demon while Naruto disappeared. What happened to him? Who was that black demon, Akatsuki?
1. He's gone?

Hello, this is I'mNoOneSpecial again. This work here was one of a few big projects that I had started but didn't know whether to continue or not. Well, here's the first chapter and you guys tell me if I should continue or not.

All reviews and critiques are welcome; please don't hesitate.

Again I own nothing about the Naruto merchandise.

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"Shizune! Go see if there are any news from on our ninja who are on mission!"

"Hai, Tsunade-sama!" Immediately the medical ninja rushed off, her pet Tonton in her arms and worries on her mind.

For some reason Tsunade was on high alert since this morning: She had assigned additional ninja to patrol the city and guard the gates; several ninja were on stand-by to aid or rescue their comrades currently on missions; courier birds were sent out to get in touch with all the ninja currently out on duty; the ANBU were assembled and ready for action… One would think that the big-chested Hokage was expecting an invasion from her old teammate Orochimaru.

Not much later Shizune came back errand and passed over the reports that she had received; there wasn't anything significant: No casualties; no critical injuries that needed immediate treatment; no requests for back-up; no miss-ranked missions… Everything was going just fine.

Looking over the papers she was given Tsunade pondered what else could happen; she was sure that something had gone wrong or was about to but all the papers in front of her said otherwise.

Leaning back, Tsunade let out a tired and somewhat frustrated sigh.

'Maybe I just got lucky…' Even though it was in her own mind it had sounded doubtful to her. Try as she might, she could not shake off the feeling of impending doom…

"Oh, I almost forgot, Tsunade-sama-" She almost bit her tongue when she flinched back from the intense glare that her teacher was directing at her, "t-there was a letter that just came in…" Quickly she handed it over.

She had no idea what the letter was about, when the assistant had given it to her was already almost on her way to bring the reports to the Hokage.

If only she had known what the letter was about… She would have definitely handed it first! Than perhaps the teams would have made it in time…

…

With great wariness and suspicion Tsunade eyed the letter in front of her; she just had a feeling that screamed that that innocent looking piece of paper contained all the bad news that that she had been expecting since this morning! With the look of a commander who led his troops in a charge against a hostile army she started reading! And the farther she proceeded through the text the more alarmed Tsunade grew; she stared so hard at the letter that it was a miracle that it didn't catch fire! It seemed as though her worst fears had come to pass…

The next second she was on her feet shouting out orders: "Shizune! I want Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura, Yamanaka Ino and Team 8 to report immediately! This is an emergency!"

"Hai, Tsunade-sama!"

Next she called for a specific ANBU to attend as well.

Having given her orders she slumped into her chair, her left hand on her face.

"Why is it that every time I win the lottery or something some sort of disaster has to strike…?"

…

A short while later all the ninja had assembled in front of the Hokage. The ANBU that Tsunade had called for had taken off his mask and ANBU-uniform and changed into the uniform of a regular Jonin; furthermore Tsunade had given him the temporary name Yamato.

"Thank you all for coming so quickly; as you all know, less than half a year ago Jiraiya left with Naruto to train him."

Immediately everyone feared that something must have happened to them; the fact that Tsunade had mentioned Naruto's training journey combined with her grim tone was more than enough proof to that. But what could have happened? Jiraiya was a Sannin and currently the most powerful ninja of Konoha.

"They were last seen in a small town near the border of Fire country. From what I received they had checked in an inn and everyday they would go into the nearby woods to train; but one day they were attacked…"

She paused to let the news sink in before she gave specifics.

"Eyewitnesses claim that they saw Jiraiya fighting off a black demon before he lured it deeper into the forest. Later, a search party found Jiraiya unconscious and critically injured among the destruction of their battle but there was no trace of the demon, and Naruto…"

Here she paused again; perhaps to give her ninja time to brace themselves for the bad news.

"…was nowhere found either."

At once everyone's face grew as grim as that of the Hokage.

"Shizune, Sakura and Ino, you are to heal Jiraiya. It is vital that he recovers and regains consciousness as he is the only one who knows what actually happened. If he doesn't regain consciousness…"

Tsunade hesitated; should she go through with her initial plan? Should she really permit Ino to enter Jiraiya's mind if he remained unconscious? Ino was still a genin and to make matters worse a gossiping hen, and there were some things that Jiraiya knew that were so… delicate, that whatever perverted thoughts Ino would find were the least of Tsunade's worries. And if her suspicions about that demon were correct… Unluckily, right now there was no other Yamanaka available.

"…then Ino may enter Jiraiya's mind upon your decision Shizune." She just hoped that the situation wasn't that bad that this would be necessary.

"This will be an A-ranked mission. As for Team 8, you are on an S-ranked mission as of now: Find Naruto and bring him home safely. You will be under the combined leadership of Jonins Hatake and Yamato. If any of you genin encounter the demon during your search, do not engage it! Inform Kakashi and Yamato and leave the area immediately! Since we do not know what that demon exactly is, it is safer for you genin to avoid it; for all we know it could be a member of the Akatsuki so leave the matter to the jonin and get to safety. You all have an hour to prepare yourselves. Dismissed!"

The genin immediately hurried home to get all the gear that they would need, but the jonin chose to remain behind; they had a suspicion about the demon so Kakashi decided to ask.

"Hokage-sama, about that demon-"

"According to the eyewitnesses it was a small, reddish black humanoid with beastly features and…"

The three jonin looked at her expectantly.

"…four long wavering tails…"

That was exactly what they had feared; it was clear now why Team 8 was told to avoid the demon at all costs.

"But Tsunade-sama…" Shizune didn't want to believe it "How did this-"

"I do not know what happened; in his last report Jiraiya wrote something about some special training or that he was going to try something with Naruto but he wrote nothing specific. That is why it is crucial that Jiraiya regains consciousness, Shizune."

Her assistant nodded, determined to get the old pervert awake.

"I have told you now everything that I know; now move out!"

...

Less than an hour later all the ninja were assembled at the gates of Konoha and almost immediately they took off. All of them were worried for their, apparently lost, comrade but none more than the little Hyuga who silently swore to herself that she would find Naruto.

* * *

And now you have to suffer the three words of torment:

To be continued...


	2. Bizarre Findings

Hello everyone, this is I'mNoOneSpecial again. First of all, sorry for the delay. Last time I didn't receive too many reviews so I guess I wasn't too motivated to continue. I really wanted to update sooner, but I have my job and whatever muse was watching over me hasn't been too helpful with this chapter; in fact this is only the first part of this chapter, I started the second part but it didn't sound right so I decided to erase everything and start all over again. Well, here's the first part, see if you like it.

Oh yes, regarding the first review I got saying 'total crap', if you don't like my story don't just throw insults at me; tell what I did wrong, where and how. This shit's not getting better with reviews consisting of just two words.

No, I don't own Naruto or anything related to him; I never would have thought of having him kiss Sasuke.

...

PS: While I wasn't able to be too productive with this chapter, I managed quite a head start on a later chapter, one definitely more interesting.

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July 9, 2014 - Here's another part for this chapter. It's not yet complete, but for some reason I decided to complete this chapter piece by piece.

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The two teams made it to the village in record time and went straight to the mayor. Team 8 together with Kakashi and Yamato were immediately directed to the site where Jiraiya had been found. Shizune and the two other girls on the other hand went straight to the local hospital and there the doctor had a nurse lead them to the room where the sannin lay. He was laying on a bed, unconscious, an oxygen mask over his mouth, and several machines were attached to him and monitored his vital signals.

"Whatever he faced in the woods, it almost killed him. He has been unconscious since we he was found," The nurse explained to Shizune, "Our examination shows that what caused him to lose consciousness was the injury on the back of his head. We also found a fracture at the side of his jaw. Taken together with where we found him and how he was slumped on the ground, we believe that he received a blow powerful enough that it sent him backwards, headfirst against a tree. But what perplex us most are the clawmarks on his body."

"What about them?" Shizune wanted to know.

"Well…", the nuse hesitated, unsure how to explain, "Our patient has several clawmarks on his body, as though he was attacked by some beast, but…"

The nurse looked uncertain, not really afraid but definitely spooked.

"If he really was attacked by some beast, then it's claws must have been on fire…"

Sakura and Ino were visibly confused.

"The clawmarks are not just clawmarks, they are scorchmarks as well. I have never seen such injuries before; they look as though the claws tore and burned the flesh at the same time. Most were not too serious but the one on his chest… that one was almost fatal."

"Thank you nurse; we will take charge of the patient now. Sakura, Ino; prepare everything for the examination and take off his bandages. They need to be changed and I need to see those clawmarks myself."

While the two younger apprentices got to work Sizune read the medical record that the nurse had left to her. Aside from what the nurse had told her, Jiraya had also lost an unhealthy amount of blood, and had a couple of broken bones as well.

"Sempai!" Ino's shocked voice brought Shizune over to look at Jiraiya and soon her face mirrored the looks of her kohai. She had just read about it but the actual sight still shocked her into silence.

Across Jiraiya's chest was a terrible wound. It looked as though some beast had tried to rip a chunk of flesh out of his chest. The skin and and exposed flesh was burned; and at the depest sites, five parallel gashes; you could even see some bone. In fact, if it wasn't for the ribcage, Jiraiya would be missing his heart and half of his lungs!

The nurse had not been too wrong with her description; it really did look as though someone had ripped across Jiraiya's chest with iron claws, red-hot burning iron claws, but there was something off with these burns; something that the nurse had missed.

Just to be sure Shizune looked closely once more before announcing: "These burns were not caused by any fire; these are chakra burns."

Sakura and Ino were astonished; as Tsunade's apprentices they had to study how to recognize and treat wounds and injuries of varying types and degrees, and this one beat the extreme cases of chakra burns that they had seen in their textbooks.

"This is the kind of injury that a multi-bladed chakra weapon would leave behind."

Hearing the explanation from their sempai somewhat lessened their shock; but both Sakura and Ino were smart, knowledgeable girls so-

"Shizune-sempai, this looks more serious than the illustrations of extreme cases that I have seen. Whoever was responsible must have channeled an immense amount of chakra into the claws," Sakura remarked.

"I agree, just look at the wound," Ino concurred, "most of the damage was obviously not done by the claws themselves but by the intense chakra that surrounded them."

"That is true," Shizune confirmed; normally she would have been proud of the two for making such good observations but today it got her worried, "Ino I think it is safer if you do not enter his mind; the injury on his head doesn't seem too serious but the fact that he is still unconscious worries me. In his current state it is hard to say if his mind is stable enough for your jutsu."

"But Shizune-sempai," Ino protested, "What about Naruto?"

"I'm sorry Ino, but it is just too risky. Using your jutsu on him right now could cause some serious damage to his mind, he might develop amnesia, or you might even destroy his mind and he will end up staying in that coma forever. Also, his condition is still quite serious. As you can see most of that clawmark lies over his lungs and heart and although they took no direct damage, Jiraiya does show some irregular heart and lung activity, maybe due to that powerful chakra. His condition might be stable for now but there is a chance that it could get worse at any moment; his heart might even stop. It is better that you do not enter his mind seeing that he could die at any moment."

Ino had no choice but to back down; if she transferred her mind into Jiraiya and he died… than both of them would be gone, the body cannot live without the mind.

"Let's continue our examination…"

...

Meanwhile the tracking team had was at the site where the eyewitnesses had seen Jiraiya and the demon.

"What the-" The sight reminded Kiba of his mother when she had a bad day and decided to let off steam in a training field. The only difference was that, although she was probably strong enough, Kiba could not remember his mother having done THIS much damage before!

There were claw marks everywhere: on the trees and even the ground. Large, strong branches had been broken off; chunks of wood had been ripped right out of the tree trunks; rocks have been smashed into pebbles; the ground was riddled with craters and furrows...

"Alright everyone", Kakashi called for a short briefing, "we will examine this field to find out what exactly happened here but foremost to find any clues that could lead us to Naruto. Spread out but stay within the range of your radios. Hinata-"

"H-Hai", although her voice was a bit shaky she was determined to do everything she could to find Naruto; failure was not an option!

"I want you to stay in the center of the field; use your byakugan to scan the field for any clues and inform us if you see anything unusual."

"Hai, Kakashi-sensei."

"Good" Next he summoned his ninkens to assist in the search but also to keep an eye on the genin, "Alright then move out."

...

A couple of seconds later Hinata was at her assigned spot. While her assigned ninkens started sniffing the ground she activated her bloodline. Needless to say she immediately scanned the area for footprints that were the size of Naruto's.

Knowing Naruto he had probably participated in the fight with the demon; he wasn't the kind of ninja who would run from a battle. And knowing how he fought, he probably had deployed his kage bunshin so there should be a lot of footprints. True, you couldn't tell at first which belonged to the original or to a clone, but that could be figured out once you followed the tracks backwards.

But Hinata saw something totally unexpected for her...

"N-No... this can't be- Kakashi-sensei! This is Hinata, please respond!"

To be continued...


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